


Profound Bond by Jeremy Edlund

by ItsJina



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Ficlet, Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M, Two Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 08:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3127661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsJina/pseuds/ItsJina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean works at his college library. It's great for the most part...except Novaks are really annoying, especially the one with the stupid blue eyes and wild dark hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From my Tumblr

Dean likes working at the library. It’s not the most exciting job, what with putting books away and making sure they’re in the right order, mundane stuff really, but he’s got cool co-workers, kind bosses, flexible hours that worked around his 5 classes, and really, it’s a laid back environment that he’s glad for. He hears about people who works in jobs that they despise or or jobs that stresses them out and Dean’s eternally grateful that Sam pulled him into this job. It’ll work for the time being as he finishes his college years.

But the one thing that irritates him is doing his closing shift. Because every single time, on that one night that he closes, there’s the  _Novak_  family on his floor. Every single time. It’s gotta be bad luck or something. No matter if he was closing the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th floor, a few or all of them would be there.

This is college and really, Dean wouldn’t know them at all, if it wasn’t for the fact that they seem to make it their mission to be as obnoxious as possible in the library and that they’re the President’s family. Long extended family or something, and they’re all in one different student councils and whatnot. Real overachievers. Dean has seen their election campaigns. Dean didn’t vote for any of them. But apparently more than half the student population did.

Anyways, what’s worse is that there’s that one Novak with his stupid blue eyes and wild dark hair and his cool collected rugged face. He irritates Dean the most. He has a stupid dazed expression most of the time and Dean’s never seen him study because he’s either sleeping, dazing, or reading a fictional novel. Dean has no idea how he can sleep through his family’s loud voices.

But really, Dean shouldn’t have complained to Sam about them and him on  that one drunken night because fate has a knack for messing with him. Just ask Sam. His brother has way too many blackmail material on him, unfortunately.

"Excuse me, can you help me find a book?"

Dean flat out stares. He hopes he’s hiding his dislike well but it’s a long closing shift tonight and Dean had just came from 2 exams and the gym. He doesn’t think his brain is actually functioning. “What?”

The Novak lifts a small piece of paper with the call number. “Can you help me please?”

Just his luck. Honestly, as if he’s the only worker here. And of course. He’s the kind of student who just uses the library without actually using the library and doesn’t know his way around. Dean rubs his forehead with a sigh. “Yeah, sure.”

The guy takes back his hand just a few inches from Dean’s reach and his face scrunches up just a bit, looking worried, “I’m sorry, am I bothering you?”

Dean blinks.

He explains, “You’re grimacing.”

Dean blinks another time and decides not to comment, telling himself that he’s a professional. “It’s been a long night, that’s all.” He opens his palm out and waits.

Novak scrutinizes at him and hesitates but gives it to him.

Dean goes through the whole process: checking it on the catalog for availability, searching it at its place, then searching for it at the sorting area. The whole time, Novak patiently followed, although he clearly was anxious to get the book. Dean couldn’t help but mumble apologies and excuses when they couldn’t find in the places he searched.

Eventually, Dean sighs and says, “Sorry, it could be missing, on a table somewhere, or someone else have it right now. You could request a search and we will keep on looking and inform you once we find it.”

"And how long will that take?"

"Honestly? You have a better chance at the local library or a bookstore than finding it here if it’s lost."

Novak looks crestfallen. “All right. Thank you.”

And Dean blames it entirely on his weariness and exhaustion because there’s a twinge of pity and he’s suddenly saying, “What was the book again?” He hadn’t commit the title to memory when he was looking it up earlier but he had remembered it was a familiar title.

"Profound Bond by Jeremy Edlund," he says with a sigh. " I’ve lost the book and haven’t read the chapter for tomorrow."

Dean can’t believe it. “You’re in Chuck Shurley’s class? Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1?”

The Novak blinks at him in surprise. “Yes. You too?”

It was too coincidental. The guy was in his English class all this time and Dean hadn’t even noticed. Then again, he doesn’t know anyone in his class, but he would’ve thought he’d recognize the guy in a class size of 40. 

Dean runs a hand through his hair, “Jesus Christ, yeah. I am.” 

The Novak was watching him intently and Dean gives in. “I have the book with me. I can lend it to you.” Why is he even doing this? He doesn’t even like the guy and his dumb leather black vest and and dumb pinstripe shirt.

"Are you sure?" Novak asks, tilting his head and he sounds genuine. "If you haven’t read the chapter yet, I’d hate to take it from you."

"No, I already did it before work," Dean assures. "I can give it to you."

They have a staring contest for a moment and it goes longer than Dean would considered normal—but then again Dean’s too tired to measure how long it’s been—before the Novak sighs with a soft smile on his face and says, “That’d be very kind of you, thank you.”

Dean pulls his gaze away, nods and tells him to wait. He goes to his locker in the office room and grab the book from his backpack. 

When he brings it back, Novak looks up to him with a startled look and smiles worriedly. His eyes falls to the book and he visibly sighs with relief.

"I’m not gonna back out my word," Dean says, slightly irritated and holds out the book.

Novak looks at it, to Dean, and then takes the book finally. “Thank you, really. I can read it within the hour and give it back to right after.”

Dean shrugs. “Sure. But really, it’s cool if you just give it to me tomorrow.” He looks at his watch. “I gotta go.”

"Wait! I’m Castiel, or Cas, for short."

Dean half turns while walking and nods, “I’m Dean.”

Novak brightens and a full smile lights his face. He runs a hand through his hair and he ducks his head a little. “See you tomorrow?”

Dean stops fully in his steps and stares, a little confused at how Castiel is acting. He’s too tired to analyze and figure it out. “Yeah, see you tomorrow, Castiel.” He lets it go and decides to worry about it another time.

Of course, as fate loves to play with him, he completely misses the way Castiel looks at him as he walks away, and it’s not until later, at a different time, does he find out what that look holds.


	2. Chapter 2

It gets bad. The Novak— _Cas_ —starts talking to him more.

After Cas gave back his book the next day and Dean realized why he’s never seen the guy before (Cas comes in from the other entrance and sits on the other side of the room), Cas gets chummy with him. The next time they have class together, Cas sits on his side of the room—not in the same row, thank god, that would be just plain weird—and nods to him with a smile. Dean lifts two fingers and waved before pretending to be engrossed in the book.

Then the guy finds him during his work shifts and  _asks for help_. Well, okay, that was pretty normal enough and Dean doesn’t think much of it at first. Then it becomes a daily routine.

"Hello Dean, could you help me find this book?"

"Hey Dean, how do I print from this machine?"

"Hello Dean, this printer doesn’t have any paper."

"Hello Dean, what are you doing here?"

"Cas, this is the men’s restroom. What do you think I’m doing here?"

Talk about having awkward conversations in the restroom.

 

And really, it gets weird. Like, _I-walk-by-his-family-and-they-stare-and-giggle-like-little-shits_  weird. As if Dean didn’t find them annoying enough, they had to add their creepy looks to the list of why Dean hates closing on Wednesday nights. He still makes all attempts to avoid the floors that they’re on and it just never works out. They’re always there. Creepers.

But whatever, he tries not to let them bother him too much. He’s still got two other exams to prepare for, an essay to write on that Profound Bond book and he really doesn’t have time to let them get under his skin.

Cas, however, appears to be the exception because no matter how many times Dean is tempted to tell him to fuck off, he just can’t. He has a conscience too, thank you, and it’s hard to tell the guy to go away when he seems so god damn genuine and curious. When he seems to really like talking to Dean and actually listens to Dean’s opinions and want to hear more. It’s really weird, maybe a nice kind of weird.

Dean doesn’t think about that though as he pretended to check the order of the books on the shelves while secretly writing on a paper of his ideas about the essay.

"Dean?"

"Jesus!" He rests his palm over his beating heart and sighs in relief upon seeing Cas. "Damn it Cas. Don’t do that." He thought it was his supervisor. That would’ve been bad, considering they’re not supposed to do homework on the job.

"I’m sorry?" Cas looked at him with one eyebrow raised before his eyes shift to the side. "Ah, you’re writing?"

Dean folds the paper and rests the pencil on top of it, “Yeah, yeah, just jotting down a few ideas for that essay for class.”

"Oh, that one," Cas nods. "What are you writing it on?"

Dean hesitates. After all, this was another guy he’s talking to who may not take it so well at what he is going to suggest. But then again, why should he care what Cas thinks? As long as he had the evidence that supports his statement, his paper would be good. “The homoerotic subtext between Kaestiel and David.”

Cas blinks at him in surprise and then he lights up with a delighted smile, “Oh that’s cool. I always felt there was something deeper than just friendship between these two.”

"Yeah? You too?" Dean smiles and his chest feels light suddenly.

Cas beams at him, “I always thought it was obvious, especially after the limbo world.”

“Right!” Dean points to him and grins. “That’s one of my main points, actually.”

“Sounds like you’re pretty set to go.”

It’s weird, just too weird, but they’re having a  _moment_  or something because he can’t look away and Cas is looking at him that way, which is just  _too much_. Dean scrambles to say something to cut the atmosphere so he can remember how to freaking breathe, “You? What will you write about?”

Cas runs a hand through his hair and shrugs, “I don’t know yet, honestly. I’m not sure whether to write about the character development of Kaestiel or David.”

Dean nods in understanding. “Yeah, they both have pretty awesome character growth.”

Cas agrees and goes off to say how incredible Kaestiel’s change was, from a heavenly angel to just a man, all because he chose to fight for humanity and David. “He chose David, essentially, who was the one who inspired his rebellion, and just having the ability to choose, to decide, and stray from Heaven’s path, is pretty amazing.”

The excitement in Cas’s voice as he switches to David and his change from a cold ruthless faithless man to a man who has faith and believes in his best friend makes Dean smile.

Cas concludes his analysis summary with a final statement: “Jeremy Edlund is a god for his works.”

He says it so seriously that Dean grins. “You read a lot of his works?”

"I’m a big fan, yes."

It dawns upon Dean then. “Is that what you’re always reading?”

Cas looks at him, confused.

Dean gestures in the air, “You’re either reading a book or sleeping when I pass by. You’re reading Jeremy Edlund’s stuff?”

Maybe what he said was the wrong thing because Cas turns  _red_. Dean has no idea why or what he said to incite that reaction.

"Oh, ah, yes," he admits and his eyes drops and there’s a hidden smile there. "You’ve noticed?"

"Of course," Dean says slowly, wary that he might accidentally trigger something else that he doesn’t understand, "You’re the only quiet one among your siblings."

At that, Cas laughs, and it’s a deep rumbling sound, and Dean finds it’s not annoying the way his siblings laugh. Actually sounds kind of nice. 

"They can be a bit too much."

"A bit? C’mon now Cas."

A chuckle. “I apologize on their behalf. I’ll try to keep them quiet.”

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome, Dean."

It’s quiet again, they’re looking at each other again and that strange atmosphere that Dean  feels makes him want to wrangle his own hair because he doesn’t know what to do about it.

"Deannnnnnn?"

Dean jumps and turns. “Charlie! For god’s sake, don’t scare me like that.”

"Dean, are you slacking off?"

"Uh—"

"Sorry, I distracted him," Cas comes forward and stands by Dean, their shoulders brushing in the small aisle. "I needed help with a paper and I asked for his help."

Smooth, Dean thinks, and he tries to keep a straight face for Charlie, who’s already giving him and Cas suspicious looks. Considering that he might’ve complained about the Novak family to Charlie every now and then, no wonder she was looking like so.

"Hmmmmmm, well, did he help you? Because Dean should be getting back to work," Charlie says with an apologetic smile. "Sorry Dean, as your supervisor, you know I can’t let you slack off."

"Yeah, I know," Dean says and sighs. He looks at Cas, "See ya, Cas. I didn’t really help at all, but hope you’ll figure it out soon."

"Yeah, I’ve made up my mind," Cas says and nods. He walks backward, waving goodbye, and half turns. "See you, Dean."

"Wait, but who will you write about?" Dean’s curious. He can’t help it.

A lopsided smile grows on Cas’s face before he turns away completely and waves above his head, “The faithless man who prayed.”

Dean doesn’t realize he’s grinning and staring until Charlie nudges him and he’s forced to look away.

“ _So,_  you’re gonna have to tell me all about what is going on between you two.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for adding Charlie only at the last second! Don't think I'll be continuing this any time soon. It was well received though so I wrote this part to it also.


End file.
